Record 16 Companies Register for Brazil Pre-salt Auction

A record 16 oil companies, including heavyweights like Royal Dutch Shell Plc, have registered to participate in the so-called fourth round of bidding for stakes in Brazil's coveted pre-salt layer, oil regulator ANP said on Thursday.

American firms Chevron Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp, Norway's Statoil and France's Total SA are also registered for the June auction of blocks in the offshore play, where billions of barrels of oil are trapped under a thick layer of salt below the ocean floor.

(Reporting by Roberto Samora and Alexandra Alper; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)